Town of Easton Receives Support from United Way of Coastal Fairfield County

Grant to Help Residents Affected by Covid Pandemic Fallout

Left to Right: Sarah Lehberger (Easton resident and United Way Content Marketing Manager) and Jeff Kimball (United Way CEO) present Alison Witherbee (Director of Human Services) with a Covid Relief Grant.

United Way of Coastal Fairfield County has awarded the Town of Easton a grant to support residents impacted by the Covid-19 crisis. Presentation was made to Alison Witherbee, Director of Human Services.

The Covid Relief Grant provides emergency assistance for food, rent, utilities and critical bills to help keep families in stable homes. This is the second round of grants from United Way to aid those affected by the pandemic in Fairfield County.

“We are grateful for this grant to support Easton residents, especially young families who have lost employment income during the crisis,” said Witherbee. “Primarily, the funding will help those struggling with utility bills to stay warm during these cold months. It will also provide grocery store gift cards so that school-aged children get the nourishment they need.”

The grant of $4,000 was presented by United Way CEO Jeff Kimball and Easton resident Sarah Lehberger, Content Marketing Manager for the local non-profit. It follows support provided to the Town of Easton last spring in the form of electronic gift cards to meet immediate family needs.

Kimball noted, “Our neighbors need our help, and many of them are seeking help for the first time in their lives. We’re honored to work with the Town of Easton to bring help and hope to those who are suffering.”

Before the pandemic, more than one out of five Easton families struggled to make ends meet. Now families are challenged by increased household expenses, and by the loss of income due to reduced working hours or shuttered businesses. In the past year, Easton residents’ requests for help to United Way’s 2-1-1 Infoline have nearly doubled.

To meet the demand in the months ahead, Witherbee is hoping to expand the town’s food pantry. United Way is helping to facilitate donations through its website, and encourages contributions to the pantry project by visiting: https://unitedwaycfc.org/town-of-easton.

Since the Covid-19 outbreak, United Way of Coastal Fairfield County (UWCFC) has made investments in every one of the 12 towns in its service area, offering:

• Grants for Basic Needs: Approximately $150,000 in grants to support towns and community partners providing for basic needs like food, rent, and utilities.

• Direct Help to Families: Over $89,000 in electronic gift cards to families in need, distributed by towns and local social service agencies.

• Protective Equipment: Tens of thousands of protective masks, gloves, and face shields to help neighbors ranging from frontline health workers to teachers and families, thanks to corporate donors and healthcare partners and like Bank of America and Yale New Haven Health.

• Virtual Learning Support: For remote learners in Kindergarten to 12th grade, UWCFC has provided a virtual tutoring program, a STEM enrichment workshop, and camps in robotics and engineering. These innovative offerings were made by the Greater Bridgeport STEM Learning Ecosystem, an initiative of the United Way’s flagship collective impact movement, Bridgeport Prospers.

• Freshly Made Lunches: Over 3,000 lunches delivered to hungry neighbors in 3 towns, through a partnership with Sikorsky Aircraft, a Lockheed Martin Company.

• Connections to Resources: Through the 2-1-1 Infoline, United Way has fielded over 86,0000 service requests from Fairfield County residents in the past twelve months.

These supports were made possible through grants, partnerships, local fundraising, and state-wide relief efforts.

Noted Kimball, “Throughout the pandemic, our United Way has worked innovatively and tirelessly to ease the burden shouldered by our neighbors. Together with our partners, we will overcome this crisis and keep building more equitable and resilient communities — where all our neighbors have the opportunity to thrive.”

CONNECTICUT LOW-INCOME PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS TURN CRISIS INTO LEARNING LABRATORY, MODEL FOR STATE

The PT Barnum Apartments, a 360-unit low-income public housing complex with over 1,100 residents in Bridgeport, Conn., is feeling the brunt of the Covid crisis. Already facing one of the largest Opportunity Gaps in the country, they’re now in the eye of Connecticut’s coronavirus hot spot.  Just last month, nearly 40% of residents lost their jobs.

Mobilizing for Action

Showing their resilience, they mobilized for action. Residents conducted a survey to assess the community’s  needs, finding that emergency funds to cover rent, utility bills and food ranked highest, and thanks to a partnership between the United Way and Bank of America, relief is being provided.  But it was another emerging need that empowered residents to literally turn the crisis into a learning opportunity, speaking to the innovative partnership with Bank of America.

Meeting an Unfulfilled Need

Initially, at the onset of the crisis, before the transition was made to full-time virtual learning, tutoring was highlighted as a need among residents as students worried about keeping pace.  The United Way and its STEM Ecosystem partners immediately cobbled together trusted allies and recruited college students from the city (former STEM participants), to engage with PT’s children for intensive tutoring. What began as a targeted effort with 5 tutors and 5 families in PT is now scaling to serve 75 children. At present, there are 42 students participating, which represents a growth of 8x over just one month. In addition, the program is expanding beyond its roots in PT, with students from Fairfield Warde now in the pipeline.

How the Tutoring Works

The program managers design the program, recruit and then train the tutors, working in conjunction with curriculum specialists. Tutors are former STEM program participants or STEM students, primarily in college. Many of these students are struggling in their own lives with food and housing, so earning a small stipend helps address a little of their own issues as well. As STEM students, these tutors are already comfortable in a virtual environment and know how to bring AI to the industrial age, as the kids they’re working with lack access to technology.

We have tutors from the University of Bridgeport, Housatonic Community College, Southern CT State University, Sacred Heart, Fairfield University and next week, graduate students will be joining the program from the College of Pharmacy at St. Josephs to focus on math.

Tutors spend 2-4 hours with each child, often connecting by phone. We work with leading STEM curriculum specialists and select special kits, based on the children’s needs, sending them to the families for ongoing work. Our plan is to work with children THROUGH the summer, to prevent a summer slide and keep children at-level as they enter the new school year.

Program Cost

Thanks to the Bank of America, we were able to seed this program and get it off the ground. It simply wouldn’t have happened without their support, and belief in the residents of PT to empower themselves. This innovative effort costs $1,188 cost per student. Over the course of 4 months, that’s just $297 per month, per student. A greater issue, what’s the cost of inaction?

Barriers We’re Facing

• Securing additional funds. We need $150,000 to scale this program to meet the needs of those who already have expressed interest in Fairfield and Bridgeport, never mind the rest of Fairfield County, where we plan to go next.

• Access to the internet continues to be a major challenge for many families. Turns out “free” programs aren’t free (just initially) and dead zones and no connectivity translates directly to a lack of opportunity. That’s why we’re building our program initially around using a phone and sending kits to children.

Empowerment leads to opportunity

PT Barnum’s residents remind us again of the promise and possibility found when we empower people, harness innovation and work together. Thanks to a partnership with the Bank of America, all of this became possible.

Want more information, contact Jeff Kimball, CEO or Gwen Brantley, program manager.